Famitsu has the full interview with Kitase and Tabata up on the site now. Pretty interesting read. I'm not going to translate the whole thing but here there are some points which I found worth repeating:
- Even though the title is changed, the term "Agito" still appears in the story. This is because in the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology, the term "Finis" refers to the destruction, while the term "Agito" refers to salvation. The line in the trailer narration which says "The world awaits Agito" can be understood to mean 'The world awaits a savior".
- The "reishiki" kanji used in the new logo was drawn by the art director Naora. He also drew the "Shinra" kanji used in FFVII.- While characters will gain experience and level up in the game, the real gameplay focus is on powering up abilities and accessories. By increasing the options you have to customize the magic available to your characters, the team becomes much stronger.
- Customizing magic is slightly different in Type-0 compared with previous FF games. Stronger versions of the same elemental spells are no longer different spells (ie: Fire, Fira, Firega) but instead how strong an elemental spell is when used will depend on how long the button is held down when triggering it. By making the ability stronger, the time required for Fire to become Fira and Firega will decrease, allowing you to execute the stronger versions faster.
- The main characters of the narrative are Rem and Machina. They act as the observers of history in the story, and they are also playable party members in the game. But in the actual game itself, the main characters will be the 12 student characters revealed from the very start. It seems to imply that in terms of the actual events during the game, Rem and Machina will not have a major role, but instead they act as a viewpoint into the historical events the game chronicles.
- Tabata flat out says that the game needs 2 UMDs because he doesn't want to have to cut any content out. When developing on the PSP, in order not to lose out to PS3 games